META-POST: Nobody Puts Sady’s Merchandising Skills In A Corner

Say, who’s spending too much time on the Internet lately? Me, that’s who! I have been spending too much time on the Internet lately! It is making me doubt my own cred as a socially functional person, I will tell you that much for sure. HOWEVER. One of the things I have been doing lately, when I am on the Internet, is getting involved in the stuff that I should have been getting involved with all along, such as:

WEBSITE REDESIGN!

Yes, this is an updatey post, about changes you will be seeing (hopefully) in the near future. Website Redesign, it turns out, is one of those changes! For example:

As it turns out, C.L. has a working knowledge of templatey stuff, which I personally do not – I manage to fuck things up every time I edit the template, to such a degree that I am always surprised when the computer does not spontaneously burst into flames as a result of my meddling – so, hopefully, at some point in the future, you will be getting an overhaul visually and in terms of certain website content.

Also, Tiger Beatdown is terminally ugly. But we do have a header, designed by a top-secret ladyblogging friend several months ago, which is gorgeous and hilarious and also, I think, might get us sued. So, hopefully you’ll be getting that, and a slightly more attractive and colorful, less wall-of-text Tiger Beatdown experience fairly soon. Another thing you might be seeing is ads! Which leads us to:

MONEY STUFF!

I consider myself one of the more fortunate ladies in the world, because people who read this blog continually straight up ask me for the opportunity to give me money. As you may have guessed, I make my living right now by freelance writing; as you may also have guessed, my primary commitment right now is to writing and editing Tiger Beatdown; as you may have guessed thirdly, I don’t get any compensation for that. Which is problematic, because it is more or less a full-time job. So, in this new chapter of the blockbuster saga Sady Doyle and the Quest for a Living Wage, I will in fact be looking into ways of making Tiger Beatdown sustainable, and “monetizing” (ugh) is a part of that. Just remember, it was your idea!

I’m looking into ad networks; specifically, I’m looking for ad networks that will help make this site financially viable and also have something to do with Interests That Are Relevant To Our Readers. Which is, like, the definition of “Looking Into Ad Networks,” but whatever. I’ve submitted the site for consideration to some folks already, but if you care to advertise here, tigerbeatdown@gmail.com is a good answer for you.

People have asked to “donate” through PayPal – one super-neat dude, by the name of William (hi, William! Thank you, William!) even found my PayPal account out of nowhere and sent me a chunk of change which, while good for about 3.5 okay dinners in the city of New York (or 1.5, if I decide to let my boyfriend eat too) was actually kind of startlingly large to me personally. I thank you for this, and for your interest! It feels strange to me, though, in that in order for this to be an actual “donation,” of the tax-deductible variety, I’d have to go and file for non-profit status, and until then it’s just people giving me money out of the goodness of their hearts. And I want people to get something concrete – increased exposure, or whatever – for their money! SO:

Remember how you were all asking for t-shirts and merchandise in that one comment section until it EXPLODED???? I am talking to some people about that, too! One of the people I am talking to about it is very gifted, and very Etsy-enabled, and she made me this cunning ensemble out of the goodness of her heart:

Attractive, no? Except for my terminally weird facial expressions and the strangely chin-erasing lighting, I think so. And, while I do not think this specifically should be the merchandise, because making other people wear the tangible proof of my self-absorption is maybe a step too far, I do want you to know that hopefully we are going to have some t-shirts and they will be precisely this attractive, though not this very same one. And finally:

If all other attempts to monetize fail, I will simply insert a dollar sign into my name, a la Ke$ha. Get ready for the reign of $ady Doyle, guys.

AND THERE’S MORE!

As you may have noticed, the blogroll is being updated. We’ll be including a bunch of new links soon. There are some that aren’t included because they belong neither under the heading of “Ladybusiness” or the “sometimes but not exclusively or perhaps not at all political but still they make me so happy I could cry” heading of “Other Business.” For example, Racialicious (which is up) and Questioning Transphobia (which isn’t yet) both have a focus on the ladybusiness, but that is not even remotely an apt or complete summary of what they cover, and I don’t know whether we need to create new categories for easy access (“Trans Business,” “Race Business,” etc.) or whether that runs the risk of fragmenting everything and pissing people off by feeling that they are being shunted off into some special category that they don’t think fully or accurately applies. It’s complicated, you guys! So feel free to share suggestions in the comment section.

Also, we are bringing on some new writers. This is so I can do other freelance work which actually pays me, without Tiger Beatdown going dark. Thus far, everyone who has been invited to write has been invited specifically by me. Pitches are exciting, though! Although I may not get the chance to respond to each and every one personally! Also, in the name of transparency, I have to tell you that I very much want to pay writers, but right now, I have to get to the point where writing, editing, comment-moderating and running the business end of this site is actually financially viable for me, rather than being an actual and heavy drain on me financially, which I can measure in lost time and income. Once I am actually earning something that approximates a living wage, I am telling you, I will get to paying writers, because writing is labor and deserves to be compensated. Right now though, the Tiger Beatdown Finances are not such that I can do a tremendous amount of that.

And that is that! So, hopefully this has been a very enlightening and non-boring post, which you can feel free to comment on with any number of demands, questions, and suggestions. Or it might be kind of boring. In which case you can just make fun of my hair, or whatever. That works, too.

This was written by Sady. Posted on Sunday, February 7, 2010, at 10:30 am. Filed under Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Follow comments here with the RSS feed. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

I agree about the simple beauty of Tiger Beatdown. Though my main suggestion in terms of layout would be to narrow the column width of the posts, cause it’s a little tough on the eyes to read large blocks of text with such a long line length. Web typography 101 😛

I agree with Nila, Maura, and Chrematisai. I love the minimalist design. If I were you, I would just narrow the column width of the posts (seconding Chrematisai’s motion) and add a fun ladybusiness-related banner, like you mentioned. Whatever you decide I’m sure will be fabulous.

Just to be contrary, I will mention that I hate narrow text columns – too choppy and too much scrolling – and I love the idea of more color, because what I find hard on the eyes is so much whiteness. But it’s your site, so whatever works for you.

I wish you luck with monetizing the site. You do valuable work here, and I hope you find a satisfactory way to get some monetary return on your investment.

I agree that the very clean look of Tiger Beatdown has been a selling point since Ye Old Days Of Blue. (But since I used that schema on my own blog, maybe I’m just biased.)

But that doesn’t mean there can’t be some improvements to the flow etc. which visually more with it folks than me can help out with. (I am a web *programmer*, not a web *designer.*)

And while I welcome the coming $elling out of Tiger Beatdown Merchandi$e, let me say that my favorite part of that picture–beyond our amazing Sady and that way cool tee–is the bookshelf in the background. As a long practitioner of the Gothamite art of reading a person’s personality by looking at the books on their shelf, let me say: fabulous!

I also love the simplicity of the site, though a banner sounds like a sweet idea. I’ll also buy merchandise, AND put the shirts on my daughter, who is 12 and awesome! Or bumper stickers on the baby, whatever!

gosh, sady, your hair is so DUMB, and also STUPID! what is WRONG with it???

ok, but no, I would totally buy some shit from you. because, I haven’t really participated in the comments at all, but tiger beatdown is basically my favorite site right now! it’s the only place on the internet where I don’t feel like punching the shit out of my room like I’m in a movie about a country singer.

i will buy your merch! and i am totes cool with ads if they get you monies, if i click them will you get more money? cos i will definitely do that for you! just as long as offensive ads don’t sneak in, like those ‘how to get a flat belly’ ones or diet pill ads etc.

if I may quote our verbally gifted friend Charley, I too would “totally buy some shit from you”

T’s in men’s sizes would be muther focking fantastic. I will make the husband wear a tigerbeatdown T. He will like it.

You should most certainly put the web address on the back of the T’s or some other such place…free advertising! Then more people would visit! And then when I quote you people will LOL or hug me instead of just looking at me strangely!

I would totally buy and then wear the shit out of that shirt. I am a big proponent of shameless self promotion/absorption and am always glad to enable others in these pursuits. If you published books would buy those too. Just saying.

Thanks for the kind mention, Sady. Just to set the record straight, that wasn’t a donation. It was a partial payment for all the awesomeness that she has given me through this very blog. (We midwesterners can take only so much one-sided generosity before we snap.)

If you also feel like you owe a debt of gratitude to Sady, her super-secret PayPal address is the very same email address on the home page sidebar, under “YOU CAN WRITE ME LETTERS”. Proper Sady nutrition is necessary for maximum blog output, so don’t be shy.

I actually rather like the design, but would suggest one tiny modification, especially if there are going to be more contributors: the author’s name should be at the top of the page! It gets very confusing at the moment.